Residents speak out on sales tax, housing

Community members given extra time to speak during Tuesday’s open forum

By 7 p.m., more than 20 people had already signed up to speak at a Longmont City Council open forum Tuesday night.

It wasn’t long, either, before a few clear themes emerged, including the cost of the city’s 3.53 % sales tax on things like groceries. Some of the speakers called for the sales tax to be repealed.

Carmelia Van Horn brought a receipt from her trip to the grocery store to illustrate just how much the food sales tax costs her and her 4-year-old daughter.

“With increasing inflation, people pay a far higher percentage of their food budget on total budget, in general, for food,” Van Horn said. “What I see here on my receipt from Sunday is $7.17 that went to this 3.53% tax.”

While Longmont’s combined sales tax rate is 8.715%, the city’s own sales tax rate amounts to 3.53%. The remainder of the local sales tax rate goes to the state (2.90%), RTD (1%), the Cultural District (0.10%) and Boulder County (1.185%).

Councilmember Marcia Martin pointed out how local sales tax, such as on food, funds city services and questioned what, if anything, should be cut out of the budget if certain tax dollars went away.

“Most of the general fund goes to city employee salaries. … You think we should cut those?” Martin asked.

When it was approved late last year, the city’s 2024 budget, which includes the general fund and several other funds, amounted to $443.9 million.

The city’s overall budget funds a variety of services such as streets, police and fire protection, among other things.

In addition to lower food costs, other speakers such as Shakeel Dalal advocated for more housing affordability within the city.

“The high cost of housing is a crisis in the city of Longmont,” Dalal said. “Families that have lived here for decades are watching their kids leave because young people can’t afford to put a roof over their heads in the city.”

In December, the median sale price of a single-family home in Longmont amounted to $585,000

and just over $466,000 for a townhouse, according to Redfin.

Tuesday’s open forum was in the City Council Chambers, 350 Kimbark St. and as of the newsroom’s print deadline several people were still signed up to speak.

Each speaker was given up to five minutes to speak Tuesday, which is two minutes more than what is generally allowed during public comment at regular city council meetings. The Longmont City Council is scheduled to host one more open forum this year on July 30.